Explore the Radical Legacy of MLK

Free event at WSU Vancouver

1/11/2018, 12:20 p.m.

Children at a free breakfast program in 1969 sponsored by the Portland Black Panthers at the Highland Community Church of Christ. Organizer Kent Ford sits with the children.
Photo courtesy Oregon Historical Society

The public is invited to Washington State University Vancouver on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to participate in "Reclaiming Our King: The Radical Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr." The free event with lunch included will take place from noon -- 2 p.m., Monday, Jan. 15 in the Firstenburg Student Commons.

Guests will be invited to participate in a community reading of King's anti-imperialist speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" delivered April 4, 1967 at the Riverside Church in New York City.

A member from Anakbayan Portland will present about the organization's "Take Back our Education" platform and black/Filipino solidarity. Anakbayan Portland aims to unite Filipino youth of all backgrounds to achieve genuine freedom and democracy in the Philippines.

The event will conclude with a keynote address, "Kent Ford, Elder Street Fightin' Statesman." Ford is a founding member of the Portland Chapter of the Black Panther Party--Portland Panthers. In 1969 he and other Portland Panthers helped organize a free breakfast program at the Highland Community Church of Christ that fed up to 125 children and the Fred Hampton Memorial People's Health Clinic that extended free medical care five evenings a week.

WSU Vancouver is located at 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave. in Vancouver, east of the 134th Street exit from either I-5 or I-205, or via C-Tran bus service. Parking is free on holidays.